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| view from rakesh's roof |
This week I got to travel up to Himachal Pradesh, a state in north India. The main purpose of the trip was to attend the Naamkaran for my coworker Rakesh's son, born 2 weeks ago. The ceremony was held in Rakesh's family home in his hometown of Sundernagar, a beautiful town in the foothills of the Himalayas. The ceremony with the Hindu priest was a few hours long, before and after there was lots of eating and hanging out. Lots of family and friends came in and out all day, and everyone was really fun and kind.
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rakesh and his wife deepti with the priest
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| the ladies of the family danced and played music during the ceremony |
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| sundernagar |
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| the priest preparing for the ceremony (check out the offerings in bags made from fosters beer labels) |
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| me and rakesh's son, chikku |
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| katharine, manju (rakesh's sister), me and rakesh's mother |
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| rakesh's cousins, who were great hosts! |
After Sundernagar, me and my roommate Katharine went to Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh. Shimla is a small city in the mountains, which became a popular summer destination for the British, because the weather is pleasant in the summers. Shimla is a beautiful town with winding roads through the mountains and forests. People there wear sweater vests and little caps and the buildings are old and British looking. When we arrived, it was very foggy, it felt like we were inside a cloud because we were so high up.
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view of shimla
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On Friday, we went to the Viceregal lodge which is this big mansion built by some British dude now used as the Institute of Advanced studies. After we decided to follow signs to the Chadwick falls because it sounded like a nice place to go. The signage was a bit confusing so we ended up asking a bunch of people how to get there, finally an old man said to follow him on a shortcut. As we walked down this long street he pointed to some stairs and told us to go that way. The stairs led us to this road that was completely empty and seemed to be under construction. As we walked down the road, suddenly softball sized rocks started rolling down the hill towards us, so we ran awaaaaaaay. Needless to say, we never ended up seeing the falls and apparently
this is what we missed. oh well.
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| katharine in shimla | |
The on the way up to Himachal and on the way back, we went through Delhi. The whole trip involved quite a lot of travel, to give you a sense, here's what the itinerary was. Saturday night (12 hours overnight train Udaipur-Delhi). Sunday in Delhi. Monday night (10 hours busride Delhi-Sundernagar). Thursday afternoon 4 hours car ride (Sundernagar-Shimla) Friday (4 hours train Shimla-Kalka, overnight 6 hrs Kalka to Delhi) Saturday night (12 hours overnight train Delhi-Udaipur). As you can see, it was a lot of travel, the best ride was definitely the "toy train" from Shimla to Kalka. Which is an old little train that winds through the mountains and goes through 109 TUNNELS! They also serve you tea and a meal as the train descends down the mountains. It was definitely a highlight of the trip.
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toy train
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On the train, I listened to lots of music. These are some of the best train songs, especially for the rainy/foggy rides:
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| the star of the show |
enjoy! more photos to come soon!
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